Myakka River State Park
| Myakka River State Park | |
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IUCN category Ib (wilderness area)
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| Location | Manatee and Sarasota counties, Florida, USA |
| Nearest city | Sarasota, Florida |
| Coordinates | 27°14′22″N 82°19′00″W / 27.23944°N 82.31667°WCoordinates: 27°14′22″N 82°19′00″W / 27.23944°N 82.31667°W |
| Area | 37,000 acres (150 km2) |
| Established | Dedicated as a park in 1941. Open to the public in 1942. |
| Governing body | Florida Department of Environmental Protection |
Myakka River State Park is a Florida State Park, that is located nine miles (11 km) east of I-75 in Sarasota in Sarasota County and that includes portions of southeastern Manatee County. A small portion (1,920 acres) of the park was the gift of the family of Bertha Palmer to the state. The park is named after the Myakka River.
Consisting of 37,000 acres (150 km2), this is one of the state's largest and oldest parks. It was delineated in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Myakka River State Park is in the southeastern conifer forests ecoregion. Plant communities in areas of the park with drier soils are a mixture of pine forests, scrub, and prairies. Florida longleaf pine sandhills are woodlands dominated by longleaf pine (Pinus palustris). South Florida pine flatwoods are open woodlands of (Pinus elliottii var. densa) with a dense ground cover of grasses and shrubs. Florida peninsula inland scrub consists of sand pines (Pinus clausa) growing amid shrublands of evergreen oaks. Florida dry prairies are flat, nearly treeless plains with dense cover of grasses and saw palmetto (Serenoa repens).
Wetlands in the park include marshes and cypress domes. Floridian highlands freshwater marshes are prairies composed of different herbaceous plant communities that vary based on water depth. Southern coastal plain nonriverine cypress domes are small wetlands of pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens) notable for their dome-shaped appearance.
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